Dr. Coates is a prominent physician of Pueblo. He was born. and reared in Coatesville, Penn. He studied medicine, and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1859; he then went abroad and spent some time in visiting the hospitals of Europe. Upon returning to America, he went to Louisiana; there he remained until the spring of 1861, when he made a second voyage to Europe. After spending a few months in Europe, he again returned to America and entered the United States Navy as a Surgeon. During the late war, he acted as Surgeon upon various naval vessels. After the war closed, he returned to Pennsylvania and practiced medicine there until 1867. When, during that year, the Indian war broke out, Dr. Coates was appointed Surgeon of the Seventh United States Cavalry, Custer's great regiment. He was with the troops in the West about a year, being also, for a time, Surgeon of the Tenth Infantry. In the latter part of 1868, he made his way through Arizona to California, and returned East by steamer via Panama. He practiced his profession in Chester, Penn., until 1872. In that year he took a steamer for South America, going to Peru, where he became the Medical Director of the Chimbote & Huaraz Railroad. The Doctor relates many interesting incidents of his life and travels of four years in South America. He traveled through the various countries and crossed the Andes as many as ten times. He returned to the United States in 1876. In 1878, he made a second voyage to South America, going then to Brazil, where he was expected to act as Chief Surgeon for the company building the Madura & Mamore Railroad. But the project for building that road failed after a short time, and Dr. Coates again returned to the United States. In the spring of 1869, he came West to Colorado and located at Pueblo, at which he has since resided, in the practice of his profession. The Doctor has an enviable reputation as a physician, and now commands all the practice he desires to attend to. The varied experience of Dr. Coates and his inexhaustible fund of knowledge, taken with his affable manners, render him not only a very entertaining gentleman, but a most useful member of the society in which he lives.
History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado
O L Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1881